About
Bernar Venet
b. 1941, Chateau-Arnoux, France
Works in Paris and New York
Bernar Venet is known internationally for his large-scale steel sculptures. French born, Venet has based himself between Europe and New York City since 1967. Exhibiting since 1968, his works have been shown in major museums across Europe, the USA and Asia. Public sculptures have been commissioned and installed in equally as many varied locations including Cologne, Japan, Norway, Luxembourg, New York and Chicago, among others.
When Venet first went to New York at the age of 24 he encountered the works of Minimalist sculptors such as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Carl Andrew and Sol LeWitt, and was immediately drawn to their work through citing similarities to ideas he was already exploring in his own work. This spurred Venet’s art practice for many years - producing paintings, installations, drawings and wall ‘mural’ pieces in steel, wood and coal. Today, Venet’s most recognised bodies of works are his steel Indeterminate Lines and Arcs. These sculptures are grounded in a Minimalist aesthetic, but also stem from his academic investigations into science and mathematics.
Brief Biography
1958
Studies for one year at the Villa Thiole, the municipal art school of the city of Nice.
1959
Employed as a stage designer for the Nice City Opera.
1964
Participates in the Salon comparaisons at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris.
1966
Creates a ballet, Graduation, to be danced on a vertical plane. Starts making new work based on the use of mathematical diagrams.
1971
Bernar Venet decides, for theoretical reasons, to cease his artistic activities.
1974
Teaches "Art and Art Theory" at the Sorbonne, Paris. A representative for France at the XIIIe São Paulo Biennale, Brazil.
1976
Starts creating work again.
1977
Exhibits at Documenta VI, Kassel, Germany.
1978
Participates in the exhibition From Nature to Art. From Art to Nature. at the Venice Biennale, Italy.
1979
Awarded a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, Washington, D.C.
1984
Starts creating his sculptures at Atelier Marioni, a foundry in the Vosges region of France.
1988
Jean-Louis Martinoty asks Bernar Venet to stage his ballet Graduation (conceived in 1966) at the Paris Opéra. The artist is the author of the music, choreography, set designs and costumes. Received the 1988 Design Award for his sculpture in front of the World Trade Center, Norfolk, Virginia.
1989
Awarded the Grand Prix des Arts de la Ville de Paris.
1991
Creates several musical compositions including Sound and Resonance at the Studio Miraval, Var, France. Release of two compact discs on the Circé-Paris label, Gravier/Goudron, 1963, and Acier Roulé E 24-2, 1990.
1993
Invited to participate in the artists' film festival in Montreal, Canada for his film Rolled Steel XC-10.
1994
Mr. Jacques Chirac, then the Mayor of Paris, invites Venet to present twelve sculptures from his Indeterminate Line series on the Champ de Mars. This exhibition kicks off a world tour of Venet's sculptures.
1996
Awarded the honor of Commandeur dans l'ordre des Arts et Lettres by the Minister of Culture in France. Presentation of the film Lines, directed by Thierry Spitzer, which covers the artist's complete oeuvre.
1997
Moves to a studio in Chelsea in New York City. Begins a news series of sculpture entitled Arcs x 4 and Arcs x 5. Becomes a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, based in Salzburg, Austria.
1998
Travels to China. Invited by the Mayor of Shanghai to participate in the Shanghai International Sculpture Symposium.
1999
Installation of a public sculpture in the city of Cologne, Germany in honor of the G-8 Summit.
Releases the third version of the film Tarmacadam (from 1963) with Arkadin Production.
Exhibits at the Musèe d'Art moderne et contemporain (MAMCO) in Geneva.
Publishes a compilation of his poetry, Apoétiques 1967-1998.
2000
New series of wall paintings, Major Equations, exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and Saõ Paulo, and at the Centre d'art contemporain Georges Pompidou in Cajarc, as well as at MAMCO in Geneva.
A year of important publications: Bernar Venet: 1961-1970, a monograph about the young artist written by Robert C. Morgan; Sursaturation an original work about reflections on the possibilities of literature; Bernar Venet: Sculptures and Reliefs, written by Arnaud Pierre; La Conversion du régard a compilation of texts and interviews from 1975-2000; Global Diagonals, a catalogue concerning a humanistic, artistic and technological project with straight lines (each 300 feet long) virtually connecting the five continents.
2001
Assouline publishes Furniture, a book on all of his designs, in conjunction with exhibitions of his furniture at the Galerie Rabouan Moussion and at SM'ART (Salon du mobilier et de l'objet design) at the Caroussel du Louvre, both in Paris.
Inauguration of the Chapelle Saint Jean in Chateau-Arnoux, France. The stained glass windows and all the furniture are designed by Bernar Venet.
Poetry reading at White Box, New York, with Robert Morgan.
Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont in Paris exhibits new series of Equation paintings.
2002
A performance evening incorporating the artist's poetry, film and music at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
Exhibits Indeterminate Line sculptures at the Galerie Academia in Salzburg, Austria, and at Robert Miller Gallery in New York.
Monograph by Thomas McEvilley on the artist's complete body of work published in French and German.
Exhibits Equation and new Saturation paintings at Anthony Grant, Inc., in New York.
Traveling sculpture show arrives in the Unites States, and twelve large sculptures are exhibited at The Fields at Art Omi International Sculpture Park in New York state for the summer. The show moves to the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida in November.
2003
Seventeen solo exhibitions this year, including a retrospective of his early work from 1961-1963 at the Hotel des Arts, Toulon, France, and Autoportrait at the Musée d'Art moderne et d'Art contemporain (MAMAC) in Nice, France.
Exhibits Saturation paintings in France, California and at the Miami-Basel Art Fair.
Publication of the English version of the monograph by Thomas McEvilley, as well as the first book on the new paintings, this by Donald Kuspit.
Installs sculptures throughout Europe: at Schloss Herberstein, Austria; on the Promenade des Anglais, Nice, France; throughout the city of Luxembourg; at the Galerie Christian Scheffel and in the city of Bad Homburg, Germany; and in the Jardin des Tuileries, Paris.
2004
Three simultaneous solo shows in New York City: at the Robert Miller Gallery and at Jim Kempner Fine Art in Chelsea, as well as three large-scale Indeterminate Line pieces on the Park Avenue Malls.
Publication of Art: A Matter of Context, a book of the artist's writings and interviews spanning 1975-2003.
Installs pieces from his traveling show in: Liège, Belgium; at Kennedy Park, Miami, Florida; and, in December, in downtown Denver.
A year of important commissions: for Bosch GmbH in Stuttgart, Germany; for AGF, Paris, France; and for the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.
Retrospective of the artist's Arcs exhibited at the Musée Sainte-Croix of Poitiers, France.
2005
On January 1, the artist is named Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, France's highest decoration.
His sculptures continue to tour Europe and North America, with exhibitions in Boulogne-Billancourt and Cergy-Pontoise, France; in Knokke-le Zoute, Belgium; and in Chicago, Illinois.
Publication of a book commenorating all of the works in his Arc series: L'hypothèse de l'Arc.
2006
Receives the Robert Jacobsen prize for sculpture from the Würth Stiftung in Germany.
Selected to paint the ceiling of the Galerie du Palais Cambon of the Cour des Comptes in Paris in celebration of the establishment's bicentennial in 2007.
2007
Inauguration of Saturation on the ceiling of the Cour des Comptes in Paris by President Jacques Chirac.
A retrospective of his work 1961-2007 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul opens in May.
The French cities of Bordeaux and Metz will each play host to exhibitions of large sculptures during the summer months.
Installation of 2 Arcs of 135.5° and 100.5°, measuring 25 meters tall, commissioned for the Toulouse Métro.
2008
Sotheby's for the first time invites a single artist - Bernar Venet - to present his work on the grounds of the Isleworth Country Club. From January through April 2008, approximately twenty-five monumental sculptures showcase the artist's work of the last two decades, highlighting some of his most distinctive themes.
2009
L'Espace de l'Art Concret in Mouans-Sartoux stages the first public exhibition of artwork from the Venet Family Collection.
The Arsenale Novissimo grants him 1,200 square meters of space in the 53rd Venice Biennale to exhibit four new monumental sculpture installations.
2010
Valencia's IVAM mounts a retrospective of Venet's conceptual work as well as a full survey of his paintings under the curatorship of Barbara Rose.
The Texan-French Alliance of the Arts and McClain Gallery lead the charge of bringing Public Art to Houston, in the form of 10 large-scale sculptures by Venet installed in Hermann Park, while the Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur organizes for another group of 10 sculptures in the Krauthügel in Salzburg, Austria, in view of the Hohensalzburg fortress.
A year of monumental installations: 2 in South Korea, 1 in New Zealand, and 1 in France, inaugurated by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
2011
Painting retrospective mounted at the Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea.
Major solo exhibition taking place at the Château de Versailles, and one at the Château de Marly in France.
Was featured twice in the city of Valenciennes, France: for their biennale as well as in an exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts.
Exhibits in Valenciennes, Toulon, Paris, Yerres, Biot, le Thor, as well as Frankfurt, and Koblenz in Germany, Basel in Switzerland, and Venice in Italy.
See here for a full biography.